Office block on Fenian Street sold for over £8 million

A private investor has agreed to pay in excess of £8 million for a modern office block, Wilson House, owned by the Abbey Group at Fenian Street in Dublin 2. The initial yield of around 4.7 per cent will rise significantly when the next rent review takes place in 2002.

Another Dublin investment property, Findlater House, on O'Connell Street, near the Gresham Hotel, has been taken off the market after it failed to make the asking price of £14 million. The Swedish owner bought the 25-year-old office and retail investment about five years ago for £5.6 million.

Wilson House, a 22,300 sq. ft building with 14 car-parking spaces, is occupied by US library catalogue company H.W. Wilson. The current rent of £375,000 per annum equates to £16.50 per sq. ft. The open market value of this accommodation is thought to be between £23 and £25 per sq. ft. H.W. Wilson has a right to opt out of the lease in 2007.

The modern block remained vacant for a considerable period after it was built in the early 1990s. The Abbey Group eventually found a tenant by settling for a rent of £8 per sq. ft. John Moran of Jones Lang Wootton is handling the sale of the building and James Meagher of DTZ Sherry FitzGerald is advising the purchaser.

The owner of Findlater House apparently got four offers for the investment, but when none of them hit the £14 million mark, he decided to retain the property in the expectation that the rent roll should increase from £750,000 to £1.1 million by October 2001. Patrick Curran of Harrington Bannon offered the six-storey office and retail block for sale in three lots or as a single unit. The retail element comprises a newly opened bar on Findlater Place renting at £50,000 per annum and two street front units used by Eircom as a tele-centre, which are producing a combined rent of £189,438.

The rents of the two leases are due to be reviewed immediately. The owners can also bank on a significant reversion in the 44,868 sq. ft of offices where the rent of £478,000 breaks back to just over £9 per sq. ft.

Eircom also has the use of 75 spaces in one of the two on-site car-parks. An underground car-park with 24 spaces is let at £1,000 per space.